We are on the 7th month of the year, so we're nicely past the midway point in the film going season. Before you know it, September will come along with the Toronto Film Festival and a whole bunch of Oscar hopefuls that will just be as packed as this summer season seems to be. I've been heading to the movie theatre on a regular basis seeing as much as possible. Once again, my handicap is living in a city that isn't always prone to get the smaller indie or foreign films, although there is the odd one that has made it here. This year, I'm also keeping track of older films I've been seeing for the first time, so I thought I would share a list from both camps. So here is my top five films I've seen so far from 2013 which I would urge you to see if you haven't already.
1. Before Midnight Hands down, the most fully realized film I've seen all year. The continuing saga of Richard Linklater's romance in the real world that started with "Before Sunrise" followed by "Before Sunset". Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy play Jesse and Celine who never seem to run out of things to talk about. "Before Midnight" is probably the darkest of the series of films thus far, and that's because Linklater's reluctance to set us up with cliches, Jesse and Celine are real people who are completely in love and perfect for eachother, but that doesn't mean they don't have their problems. The films have become wiser as the characters have grown older, the first film was like an ode to young love, the second film saw the same two people nine years later full of regret for not having gotten together in the first place. This latest film we see the two living together with children and in love but still unsatisfied. Each film builds more and more, it's a brilliant experiment you don't normally see in movies.
2. The Great Gatsby Purists may take issue to Baz Luhrman's adaption of what is arguably the greatest book of the twentieth century. Luhrman does simplify the book and the character of Gatsby somewhat, however, I didn't think it diminished the pure energy and visual splendor of the film itself. I've had issues with Luhrman's films before, and I don't think this is perfect, but it was entertaining, and Leonardo DiCaprio gives one of his best performances as Gatsby along with Tobey McGuire. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I was enthralled with Luhrman's vision.
3. Mud Director Jeff Nichols is one of the most interesting indie filmmakers around, I was completely enthralled with his first film "Shotgun Stories" which introduced me for the first time to the unique and talented Michael Shannon. "Mud" can be best described as a Southern Gothic coming of age story. Matthew McConaughey plays the mysterious title character which is surely one of his best performances. Mud lives on a small island where he befriends two young boys who agree to help him seek out the love of his life Juniper (Reese Witherspoon), but it's much more complicated than that. For about two thirds of this story, it's perfect, but it begins to get overstuffed and convoluted near the end, but I've never seen McConaughey ever better, in what is my favorite performance so far this year, and Nichols is a gifted filmmaker, I look forward to more of his films in the future.
4. Iron Man 3 Perhaps the first super hero movie that also seems to be commenting on super hero movies. Robert Downey Jr. made the right move by bringing on Shane Black to co-write and direct this latest installment in the series. You can see the filmmakers taking glee in twisting around our expectations for this version, and despite another overstuffed climax, it succeeds in being one of the more original movies of its kind, I even found it more entertaining and wittier than "The Avengers".
5. The Lone Ranger Very similar in tone as "Iron Man 3", as it plays with expectations and isn't subservient to its genre trappings. What we get is more of a comedy disguised as a blockbuster western, not many people saw it that way, and critics have unfairly attacked it. And really look at what Gore Verbinski is doing as a director, he brings in nice surreal elements into the mix and at times fills the screen with vast landscapes. It's a trippy weird western, but so was "Rango" which Verbinski also directed and people seemed to have loved that. The finale is more exciting and visually impressive than most blockbusters which relied too much on video game like effects or 9/11 imagery for their climaxes (I'm looking at you "Man of Steel" and "Star Trek"). Plus Armie Hammer has fun winking at the audience, while Johnny Depp seems to have the shadow of Buster Keaton on his face.
Other films worth mentioning, the best horror film I've seen in awhile was surprisingly the remake or reboot or whatever of "The Evil Dead" which has a very clever and bloody ending, "The Heat" is by far the funniest most humane comedy in a very underwhelming year so far for comedies, and Guillermo Del Torro's "Pacific Rim" is solid popcorn entertainment in the most old fashioned way, however it doesn't come close to his masterpiece "Pan's Labyrinth".
And now for my list of older films that I have viewed for the first time this year. Here are my top five
1. The Life of Oharu Director Kenji Mizoguchi is often compared with Ozu and Kurosawa as one of Japan's masters. Not many of his films are available, I have only seen a few. "The Life of Oharu" is one of the most devastating films I have ever seen in all my life, it's an instant masterpiece in my mind, it's been awhile since I've seen a film that has affected me quite like this has. The story is of a Japanese girl who comes from a noble family, but is banished from her place in society after she falls in love with a commoner. She is then sold by her father to become a courtesan, and the film follows her life as she is reduced to a middle aged prostitute. Mizoguchi was a master at camera placement and movements, the last few moments of this film are ones I will not forget, a profoundly sad but moving film that deserves a place along with all the greats.
2. MacBeth (1948) Orson Welles has been taken for granted for a long time, isn't it time his films deserve the type of treatment reserved for most masterpieces not just "Citizen Kane". His version of Shakespeare's "MacBeth" is a visual feast, all the more impressive in that he made it in Replublic Pictures, a film company mostly known for B-movie westerns. Welles had little time, and a small budget, but he creates a compact masterpiece with this film. To save time, he recorded the voices of the actors which were dubbed over their lines, Welles even dubbed in some bit parts with his own voice. The tragedy of Welles' filmography is how incomplete his films all were, yet you don't really notice it, "Macbeth" is one of his overlooked films that deserves a reevaluation, now if all his other films can be properly released like this one has.
3. Heaven Can Wait Ernst Lubitsch's twilight comedy is everything you should expect from him. The story of a life long philanderer who arrives at the devil's office after his death pleading his case that he belongs in hell. The story is full of wit and sentiment that is sorely lost in movies today, of all the films I've seen this year, "Heaven Can Wait" fills me with the most nostalgia of the type of movies they don't make anymore.
4. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp One of the most famous and notorious films ever to come from Britain, from the famous Archers Powell/Pressburger, it tells the long tale of Colonel Clive Candy (Roger Livesey, a jovial, and principled officer who reflects on his life with the women he was in love with (three, all of whom are played by Deborah Kerr)and his lifelong friendship with a German officer (Anton Walbrook). This film is one of a kind, not quite a comedy, not quite a drama, and not quite a war story, but like "Heaven Can Wait", it's full of nostalgia of a simpler time, in this case, before the Nazi's took over. It's gorgeously photographed in wonderful technicolor.
5. Design for Living Another Lubitsch title, this one done in the hay day of the pre-code era, a fun, sexy comedy about two men (Gary Cooper and Frederich March) in love with the same women (Miriam Hopkins), and the gentlemen's agreement they make with eachother. This films was years ahead of its times, and something that Hollywood wouldn't even attempt today. It was adapted by Noel Coward and oozes sophistication, testament to the greatness of Lubitsch and his immaculate touch he had on his material.
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